BCCI in tricky situation over Sachin's Lashings outing

New Delhi: Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar seems to have put the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in a Catch-22 situation after his sojourn with the Lashings World XI during his injury break from international cricket recently.

Sachin, who had skipped the tri-angular series in Bangladesh and the Asia Cup in Pakistan due to a groin injury, played alongside Indian Cricket League (ICL) recruit Dinesh Mongia at the School Ground in Essex on June 27.

Now the question is will the Board ban Tendulkar from playing international cricket for playing with a rebel player as they had stopped three of their contracted players - Piyush Chawla, VVS Laxman and Ajit Agarkar -- from signing up for various English counties as those counties had ICL players in their ranks.

It may sound a bit rude and unreasonable on part of the BCCI to ask three of their players not to associate themselves with teams having ICL connections and then turn a blind eye when the best batsman in the world, who is on the verge of creating history by overtaking Brian Lara's Test aggregate runs, breaks the same rules and plays alongside or against a team with a rebel player.

It is not that the public would have pointed a finger if ICL players had played in our domestic setup or had gone on to play for the country as to them performance counts and it is immaterial if that particular player is from ICL, Indian Premier League (IPL) or from the moon as long as he does his job for the team.

For that matter the cricket loving public would not bother if Sachin plays with any rebel Indian player as long as he does well to prove his fitness level. But if the BCCI rule is broken by any player, including the great Tendulkar, the general public and the affected cricketers have the right to ask for explanations and the Indian board better be ready with a satisfactory answer.

However, this new turn of event has only made the BCCI officials look like fools as the other players, including Chawla, Laxman and Agarkar and others who are sure to get a chance to play in English county in the near future can turn back and ask the same officials, including IPL chairman and commissioner Lalit Modi, what action has been taken against a senior player like Sachin for breaking the rules.

Now with Sachin Tendulkar playing alongside a rebel player (Mongia) in England, it will be interesting to see what kind of answer the BCCI will come up with or will they brush this incident under the carpet like they have done in the past.